Update All The Things!

Once again, sorry for the long delay. I have completed a lot of my planned projects but just haven’t had the time to post an update on them. I’ll be posting individual tutorials for the projects I’ve done so far when I get more time.

Shifter Linkage Bearings

Shifting in my AW11 isn’t as smooth as I would have liked, so I decided to replace the old worn rubber grommets on the transmission side of the shifter linkage with roller blade bearings. The idea for this project came from the old MR2 Wiki (http://mr2wiki.com/AllModels/ShiftBearings).

Before

After

Shifting feels much more crisp this way, but I may update the bottom one with a spherical bearing in the future.

Relocate Battery to Trunk

The battery lines were really nasty and corroded. So I decided to relocate the battery to the trunk for more space in the engine bay.

Before

After

The new battery lines consist of two 2 gauge negative lines (running to the chassis and the transmission) and two 4 gauge positive lines (running to the starter and the alternator). There are a few 10 gauge positive lines that now run to the engine bay relay box no. 2 as well.

Replace the Climate Control and Open Door Indicator Lights

The open door indicator light and the climate control lights were all stock warm incandescent lights — which clashed with the cool white LEDs on the instrument panel. After getting annoyed enough I ordered some more lights from superbrightleds.com (I bought three 74 sized light bulbs, but you actually need four if you intend on getting them all).

Before

After

As you can see the only thing I didn’t replace was the light for the cigarette lighter. I’ll probably get it in the future, but getting the climate control out is such a pain in the butt that it wasn’t worth it.

Cabin Light Replacement Take 2

The extra weight of the LED panels kept causing the dome light to pop off and dangle on its cables, so I decided to remove the old mod and put up some LED strips I got for five bucks on Amazon.

Before

After

Unfortunately these lights are more purple than cool white, so I’ll likely replace these again at some point in the future.

Replace Fuel Filter and Oxygen (O2) Sensor

The fuel filter in the car was probably never changed since it rolled off the factory assembly line, and the O2 sensor had an unknown history. On Amazon I bought a new NPN brand fuel filter (P/N 23300-19175) for $30, and a new Denso 234-1056 Oxygen sensor for $23.

The process to replace the fuel filter was a bit of a pain, so read my tutorial on it if you plan on tackling it. The O2 sensor was super easy to replace though.

Before

After

The only thing that made installing the new O2 sensor difficult was the bent to shit exhaust manifold cover (I’m blaming a previous owner for not taking out the bottom bolts before trying to pry it out).

Refresh Engine Bay

When I started relocating the battery I knew that cleaning things up would be a good idea while I was already there. A lot of the old wiring was ratty, some of the vacuum lines were cracking, fuel lines were not fuel injection rated, and a lot of parts were very dirty. So I decided to refresh everything that I could. This took about three weeks.

Before

After

Replace Intake and EGR Gaskets

While I refreshed the engine bay I needed to replace the old intake manifold gasket, intake plenum gasket, and the EGR gasket.

I bought the gaskets on RockAuto.com for about $25 altogether with shipping.

Before

After

Note: Since the EGR gasket didn’t quite fit I had to cut it.

Add Lights to the Shifter

Just for the hell of it I decided to add some LED light strips I had laying around to the shifter cover. I think it came out pretty well:

Replace Vacuum Tank and Check Valve

When I was cleaning everything up I found that the vacuum valve rattled like a spray paint can, and the one-way check valve didn’t work. So I bought a replacement Vacuum Tank (P/N 25719-16020) for $33, and a replacement Check Valve (P/N 90917-10049) for $12 through a couple of Toyota part dealers online:

Cup Holders

I was browsing through some Japanese AW11 galleries and found that a few of them were mounting cup holders above the climate controls. The only probably was that the pre-built solutions they were using cost about $25+. So being the cheap inventor that I am, I decided to try to copy what I saw. I went down to Wal-Mart and bought some metal mesh pencil holders for $2.58 each, put some velcro on the bottoms, and attached them to the top of the climate control paneling:

I measured the size of the cup holders to ensure that they would fit even large drinks, and they hold up very well (even when corning fast).

Here’s what it looks like with a small 22 oz drink and a 500 ml water bottle: